The District 84 Board of Education met on March 14 and approved a revised 2012-13 budget, discussed some food service issues and also discussed a few other items.

The school board’s budget deficit is over $175,000 for the year. One main issue was the school having about nine fewer enrolled students this year than what was planned, which resulted in $54,000 less in state funding.

Another big cost item was hiring two additional paraprofessionals and a prorated teacher for special education.

A summary from the Brown County Health advisory meeting was reported. The flu shot was the apparent topic of the meeting and it was reported that the Brown County Health members advised residents to receive the flu shot to reduce risk of spreading the flu.

Most of the school board meeting was spent with Judy Cammeron talking about the food service program along with their budget.

Cammeron mentioned and welcomed the new food service director, Christine Kotten.

She also discussed some new requirements involving whole grain foods along with requiring students to take fruits or vegetables with every lunch meal.

One issue they are having is trying to increase protein and grains in their food but not increasing the calories at the same time, since usually there are more calories in foods that are high in protein.

She reported some good news that in February they were averaging a higher increase in breakfasts consumed.

However, students are apparently vocal that portion sizes in general are smaller than usual.

There will be a survey implemented in order to get some feedback of their food service, which will be taken from students and parents. This will help food service members to plan out next year’s budget as well.

The food service’s expense budget was reported to already be at 83 percent for this year.

The school board action items that were approved were:

April 12, 2013 as cut-off date for FY 2013 purchases;

Resignation of Mary VanRoekel at the end of the school year;

Jared Schwab as SPED paraprofessional;

Resignation of Dan Paur, SPED paraprofessional effective 3-22-13;

Jane Hurley as a part-time long term substitute for SPED for the end of the school year;

Arica Otte as prom advisor for the 2013-14 school year;

Resignation of Kevin Schneider as Teacher Induction Coordinator effective the end of the school year;

Revised budget for 2012-13;

Accept the following donations: $150 from an anonymous donor to the library and $25 from the Woman’s club to the YES team.